“Most of us enjoy the benefit of living in a safe society. We live within defined and defended borders. We sleep soundly under the ever reaching umbrella of government protection. Our food and water are monitored, our consumer products tested. Cups of coffee are sold with warning labels, “this is hot.” Seat belts are required on most roads in most developed countries. The benefits of this recent rise of safety cannot be denied. Infant mortality is down, life expectancy is up, and more and more people are gaining the material markers of a so called “modern world.”

But what of the detriment they have caused? Adventure has become a packaged commodity. One can take an afternoon course in skydiving, or a pre-planned six day trip to Jerusalem. Even Everest has become a tourist trap. Rich men and women shelling out six figures for a guided treck up the mountain. The danger has been minimized for the convenience of the consumer; the difficult planning already done. These adventures are not adventures at all. They are vacuum packed, sanitized bastardizations of an original independent spirit.

The things described on this site are not “safe” in the way that modern society has come to understand safety. We are not experts in our field. We don’t always use tested and accepted equipment. We don’t always go where it is deemed safe for us to go. The risks are plain and clear to all involved, but we face them and weigh the options. Climb that crane and take a slight risk of death or incarceration? Or stay home and watch another uninspiring television show? Rather than pursue solely the recreational products and services offered to us we choose to follow our own aims.

Want to summit that skyscraper? No need to jump through hoops trying to arrange a guided tour. Just use your own head and get up there yourself. When you abandon the child-parent relationship between yourself and society and start to act and think for yourself a whole new world will open up. The consequences truly pale in comparison because, lets face it, what we do is not that dangerous and a night in the cells is really not that bad.

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7 responses

Nice. I’d argue though that there is nothing inherently good about anything in their first paragraph. Though I get the impression from the rest of their site, that had it been audio instead of text, we might have heard the sarcasm dripping from their voices.

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Ryan(11:49:02) :

Is there a promise of insurance?

Ryan

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Micheal Blue(08:41:30) :

“Climb that crane and take a slight risk of death or incarceration? Or stay home and watch another uninspiring television show?” This is the problem with the human mind, especially when it channels egoism – though cleverly spin-doctors it into “something exciting to do”. This drive to do something extreme is basically neurosis. It is interesting to note that really positive people throughout the history have not participated in extreme adventures/sports, yet their lives were not boring. It comes down to the thing called “intelligence”. Yes, sometimes it may be fun and perfectly OK to push the envelope a little bit, as long as it is controlled by intelligence.
Intelligence wouldn’t prod anyone to walk to the north pole, or to climb Everest, or to jump from an airplane in a glide-suit, or to cycle around the world, or to go over the Niagara Falls in a barrel; these (and other) exteme things are products of neurotic minds.
Going back to the sentence I quoted above – there is also a third alternative, such as going for a bike ride or whatever you like doing (without going into an extreme). It seems the writer of the article can see things in black and white only. Either complete “on” (climb a crane) or complete “off” (watch an unispiring TV show). However, there are lots of tones in between.

It seems to me you can divide humans into 2 broad categories: 1) those that want to explore/push their limits in some way and 2) those that want to stay safely in the middle of their comfort zones.

I make no critique of either group as I think the world only functions because we have both types of personalities.

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Micheal Blue(11:49:55) :

Vik, the people who have contributed to the world in positive ways have certainly pushed the envelope…of science, imagination, creativeness. I don’t think there is a single person that has contributed positively to the world by doing extreme physical stuff. Yes, some of those extreme adventurers might have found an interesting cave or a new species of insect/plants/animals. So what? How does that help us to live in peace and positive prosperity?
How does it help eliminate greed?
The problem is when people exhaust their energy by doing extreme stuff, they don’t have enough of energy for basic living. I’ve been involved in natural healing/health stuff for years, and I can see that.
There is nothing wrong with going on an extreme adventure per se, as long as the people involved can harmoniously handle it on all the levels – mental/physical/spiritual. The problem is that so many people are laden with toxicity and weakened nervous system (as easily evidenced by out-of-shape spine and tight muscles), that they can’t handle those challenges harmoniously. In that case they actually contribute negatively to the world.
So what’s the point of the challenges? The point is that the ego can say “I did it”. The world would actually benefit for people listening to their bodies and staying within their comfort zones. When the body starts getting out of its comfort zone, it’s time to slow down. It is possible to extend one’s comfort zone in an intelligent way without pushing the body into extremes. The intelligent way is providing the body with what it needs, detoxifying, and tuning up the nervous system via chiropractic healthcare.

The olympics are essentially only extreme physical challenges. Almost every important exploratory expedition in the past was an extreme physical challenge.

How does going for a bike ride around a park on a Sunday help improve the world?

You are making a whole lot of assumptions about what’s valuable in terms of human activity. Maybe climbing a suspension bridge is as important as painting a picture, writing a story or working on a computer program?

Personally I think it’s great that people are passionate about something they enjoy doing. That they are moving their bodies instead of watching TV. That they aren’t conforming to rules for the sake of being a law abiding cog in the machine.

If you are happy with your own choices why would you care that these folks are out there doing what you don’t want to do? As far as I can tell they aren’t damaging anything or causing any problems other than challenging the assumption of risk taking in society.

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Malcolm(21:48:58) :

“These adventures are not adventures at all.” Do they mean to tell us that these are no true adventure, but the ones they do are?

thelazyrando wrote: “That they aren’t conforming to rules for the sake of being a law abiding cog in the machine.”